My friend Lydia Mosig arrived in Hoi An with her family Linda and Andrea and son in law Andy for a weeks holiday and a needful ceremony to perform. The last time Lydia was here her husband Paul was with her and sadly he has since died so Lydia brought some of his ashes to spread in a place that he loved. 

While they were here we had many dinners together and many laughs. Stories of Paul were told and I couldn't help but repeat the one where Paul and I went shopping for North Face jackets. Paul went into the shop and chose a jacket and got a price which was I think 800,000. I played the reluctant sidekick and said come on Paul they are cheapere down the street. The shop lady dropped the price to 700,000 but I insisted we leave and grabbed Paul's arm. The price dropped further to 600,000 so Paul bought the jacket. The next day I told him I wanted to buy one too and he had to play the reluctant buyer. So we went into the shop again and got a high price and I waited for Paul to intervene but when I looked around he was rummaging in a pile of knapsacks so my ploy fell flat and I ended up with a 800,000 jacket. I told the lady that my friend had bought the same jacket for a much cheaper price the day before and she said Ah yes but much more material in yours. Well I am twice Paul's size so I guess she was right. Whenever Paul and I wore the same jackets to our local coffee shop in Daylesford he would say, Much more material in yours.

We hired a bus to go to Tam Ky and on the way we stopped on top of the Cua Dai bridge a bridge Paul had admired for its graceful curve and its construction, he was an engineer after all, and Lydia had brought some of Paul's ashes with her as we thought this would be a good place to scatter them which we did, but the wind being in the wrong direction I got a faceful of them.

On to Tam Ky and Heroic Mother which I have been to see at least 6 times now. Lydia and I sat and sipped drinks while the girls and Andy made the long trek up the steps to the statue. 

Then lunch by the beach and a drive home along the beach road.The road down to Tam Ky is gunbarrel straight with 5=6 bends in 40 kms but the beach road has almost no straight parts and our driver couldn't handle it. After about 10kms he feebly pointed straight ahead and said despairingly Hoi An? meaning "its like this all the way?" Luckily on my last trip I knew a shortcut back to the highway but it involved a very long narrow bridge and when we came to it he stopped and ruffled his hair and looked behind for a place to turn back. I egged him on and he finally ventured onto the bridge. He had about 150mm on the drivers side but about 300mm on my side so he had room for error the only problem being if he met someone coming the other way which we did right at the end. A three wheel timber cart had entered the bridge but we had right of way so the guy had to back up and let us past. It was a motorcycle powered cart but luckily had a reverse gear. The driver was so happy when we got to the highway.

I have included a lot of pictures taken at a bonsai garden where my friend Thien took me and I must say it is very difficult to take a good picture of bonsai as you will see.